Bait hooks prize again

Brady Vore and Michael Dirksen know how to reel in the top prize.

The duo tried out a new type of bait in their effort to hook a different set of judges. The result was the same.

For the second year in a row, Vore and Dirksen used an idea for an improved fishing lure to take home the $500 first-place award Saturday in the Jay County Innovation Competition at John Jay Center for Learning.

“It feels good,” said Dirksen as he and Vore took their victory in stride.

The duo, which took first place last year along with Robbey Byers for another fishing bait idea that involved a retractable hook, edged the team of Caden Stant, Chris Stanley, Chase Gillette, Dawson Seyler and Dallas Willis by a single point. That group competed with an idea for an improved multi-slice pizza cutter.

“I heard and saw enthusiasm from both groups. And that’s important,” said Ramon Loucks, owner of IOM Grain in Portland, who judged the competition along with Michael Q. Swain of Purdue's College of Technology at Richmond and Rusty Inman, executive director of John Jay Center for Learning. “If you go in to pitch something and you’re not enthused about it, you’re not fired up about it, then nobody’s going to buy it.

“They were two great groups of young people, and it would be great to see more.”

Third place went to Auston Rittenhouse, Blake Raney and Emerson Futrell for a 360-degree welding table.

Vore and Dirksen went back to their tackle box for their 2017 innovation idea, this time working on a lure-based bait as opposed to the spinner they offered up last year.

They modified a minnow-style lure that goes about 2 to 3 feet deep into the water. When being used for fishing, it has a pair of hooks that dangle down about an inch from the lure itself. When it is not being used, a piece of fishing line is attached to a screw on the rear of the lure in order to retract the dangling hooks and hold them close to the lure.

As with their innovation last year, the focus is to keep the hooks from tangling with other tackle and/or getting stuck in the fingers of the fisherman.

“He went off fishing one day and we had this project we were supposed to be doing. He came back and he’s like, ‘Guys, we should do safety bait,’” said Dirksen, referring to Vore’s idea for last year’s winning innovation. “So we ran with it … and now we’ve got Safety Bait 2.0.”

“Which is two times better than Safety Bait,” added Vore. “With the design it will actually let the hooks free flow and get more movement to attract more fish while being safe at the same time.”

Each of the innovations were judged at Saturday’s innovation fair at John Jay, with groups making presentations to the panel of judges. They were rated based on their display at the fair, creativity and originality, quality, benefit to the public, marketability, their prototype, their presentation and the ability of the innovators to answer questions.

Vore and Dirksen plan to be back next year in an effort to go for the three-peat. They plan to follow the process that has led them to success thus fair — brainstorming followed by trial and error.

“We just sit down and we talk about it a little bit,” said Dirksen.

“Shoot ideas,” continued Vore. “Just start thinking of random stuff to do. And then whenever something pops into your head that sounds good you just go with it.”

“Try and work with it,” added Dirksen. “If it doesn’t work out, you just try something new.”